Welcome to the recap of the Catholic Sistas blog for the week of September 24 – September 29! Hopefully you will find this new feature a helpful assist in keeping up with our wonderfully diverse posts. We wouldn’t want you to miss a thing! 😆
As part of our blogging schedule we have agreed, as a group, that we will not be doing individual blog posts on Sundays. Our week in review, Sistas Weekly, is set to auto-post so that we can keep holy the Sabbath and spend time with our families.
How to Change the World (Without Becoming a Missionary to Africa)
18-year-old Katie went on a mission trip to Uganda to minister to the poor there. Five years later, she has made Uganda her permanent residence. She runs a ministry that provides medical care and feeds 1200 children a day, which allows them to attend school rather than working in the fields or begging. She established… Read more »
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Fantasy’s Disturbing Turn
I love fantasy books. Tolkien, Lewis, Terry Brooks, Eddings, McKiernan, Robert Jordan. And I’m always looking out for some good new series to read. So I got on my Kindle and downloaded a free sample of Martin’s Game of Thrones. This is the best-selling series that HBO has now even made into TV shows. Much to… Read more »
Understanding Catholicism with Baptist Theology
The Baptist faith community where I grew up deserves most of the credit for making me into the Christian I am today. It was there that I was first introduced to God and His immense love for me, that I learned to faithfully commit myself to the study of Sacred Scripture, and it is where… Read more »
Service with a Smile
A few months ago, I visited a friend, a new mother with a four-month-old baby. She talked about how stressed she was and how much she would love to some time with her husband, who works two jobs. “Let me watch the baby for you this Sunday,” I offered. “That way, you can go spend… Read more »
Faithful Citizen: Vote with a Well Formed Conscience
Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen seems to have been a prophet before his time. His quotes appear to resonate even more today than they did during his lifetime. They certainly belie an almost otherworldly understanding of what the citizens of today will be facing when they vote. We would do well to note that Sheen, like the Church… Read more »
Woman in Love: An Interview with Katie Hartfiel
Katie Hartfiel is a 29 year-old wife and mother of two. She and her husband Mark live in Houston where they are both active in ministry. The story of how they met and fell in love is chronicled in Katie’s new book, Woman In Love. In the book, Katie writes about the inner… Read more »
The Sorrowful Mysteries… Everyday Style
I will admit the Sorrowful Mysteries are the most difficult for me to pray. I must contemplate my own sinfulness and meditate upon loss in my own life in order to really benefit from the Rosary on Tuesdays and Fridays. No one really enjoys approaching these topics, but it is so essential to acknowledge our faults and failures, because it sweetens Christ’s resurrection for us and makes us truly appreciate His sacrifice… Read more »
Following Jesus, the Original Narrow-minded Christian
Pasta in Pumpkin Sauce
How to Die
The Sign of the Cross One day while perusing around Facebook, which I have a tendency to do, I came upon a great image posted in my newsfeed: (Image posted by the page http://www.facebook.com/TheCatholicChurch, maintained by http://www.uCatholic.com) Many of us Catholic Sistas (and friends) began discussing the image. I was surprised by how many had never heard of this tradition! I had actually been taught this while I was in high school, with a slight variation – to cross myself with 3 fingers (thumb, index, middle) as the sign of the Trinity, while bending the other 2 (ring and pinky) as the dual nature of Christ. Other ladies had their own ways that they were taught. 
As parents, we are always looking for extra support in rearing our children as people of God. I have collected a few quotes and would like to share those that always help me: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17 I say this to my children often. I want them to know that I love them with the unconditional, undying love of a parent—the love the Father showed to His own Son, Jesus. 
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven”. -Matthew 5: 44-45
I stared at the simple white host in the monstrance and waited. It was silent and still in the small, brick building that served as a perpetual adoration chapel on the campus of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. It was an ideal place for listening, and that’s what I was there to do. I was in the middle of a crisis of sorts, and I had come to present my problem to the Lord and beg Him to show me the way. 
I moved halfway across my state a month ago. And if you know Texas, that’s pretty far. In an effort to reconnect as a couple, my husband and I decided to leave a well-paying job for lower salary that would allow us to be closer to my family and significantly improve his family time. So, in 2 weeks, I had to pack up a 1300 sq. ft. house.
If we are temples of the Holy Ghost; if we are made members of the Body of Christ at our Baptism; if the Body of Christ is our Holy Mother the Church; how much more so then is Mary both our personal model as believers, and the model of the Church?
Rushing to my pew, quietly and quickly, I tried to go unnoticed. A shy college student, I had no one to really go to Mass with me – well, not as often as I wanted to go, which was daily. Pulling the kneeler down, I felt my knees hit the leather chocolate brown cushion, folded my hands in prayer and closed my eyes in adoration. Just a few minutes later, I heard little feet scuffling the tile floor of the center aisle; I didn’t have to open my eyes because I knew it was the Sanchez mother and her nine little ones. In admiration, as I heard the last set of feet pass my pew, I opened
Remember last February when the Catholic Sistas conducted their own 
If you know me in real life, you know that there are many things that I’m passionate about. There are also many things that I take a “you’re entitled to your own opinion, and we’ll have to agree to disagree” stance about. Then there are other things that I just get flat out fired up and “preachy” about. I guess in that regard I’m not that different from anyone else. 
On Loneliness
